Saturday, January 12, 2013

Priest relives his ordeal after attack by oil thieves

A parish priest who was assaulted by raiders after he foiled an
attempted theft of heating oil and copper from a church in East Galway
has described his assailants as “cowards”.

Fr Christy McCormack, the Parish Priest of Fohenagh and Killure, was
fortunate to escape serious injury after being punched in the face from
behind by one of three robbers who were attempting to steal heating oil
from Fohenagh Church in the early hours of Monday morning.The attack has shocked the small community of Fohenagh, and Galway
Gardaí have renewed their appeal to the public to be vigilant as roaming
criminal gangs continue to stalk the countryside and prey on ‘easy
targets’ in rural, remote areas.It is the second raid on Fohenagh Church in a month; and oil heating
thieves also struck Fohenagh National School over Christmas, which is a
few hundred yards up the road.Pupils there had to be sent home on Monday for health and safety
reasons when they returned from the Christmas break to find that the
home heating oil had been stolen.

In all up to €900 worth of oil was
taken from the church and school over Christmas.This callous attack on a priest is the latest in a series of thefts
of home heating oil in rural areas of the county; and another attack on
Catholic churches in Ireland which, following thefts of sacristies in
Limerick and Tipperary over the festive period, appear to be seen as
‘soft targets’ by gangs.“We would appeal to people in rural areas to be vigilant and to
report any suspicious or unusual activity to your local Garda station.
We would urge people if possible to get the registration numbers of
vehicles,” a Galway Garda spokesperson said.It is the second attempt at stealing oil from Fohenagh church in the
past month.

On December 13, the church received delivery of a half-tank
of oil but just two weeks later the tank was bled dry by thieves.

Fr McCormack then decided to move the tank to a more secure area within the church grounds.